JP Morgan chief economist Stephen Walters also welcomes the announcement, and he says a return to surplus in this economic cycle is hard to argue against.

"But I think what a lot of people, including myself, had some issues with was why we need to rush to do it within the next six months," he said.

Mr Walters says the Treasurer has done the right thing to allow the "economic stabilisers" to kick in.

"Rather than intervene... and try to squeeze revenue from previously untapped sources or trying to slash expenditure to try to make the books balance, you essentially let current policy settings stand and allow whatever the implications are to your revenue to unfold," he said.

"And as the Treasurer says, they're already down by about $20 billion, and just in this fiscal year alone on your revenue side, to October they're down by $4 billion.

"Now essentially rather than trying to reverse that, you just let that play out and essentially end up with a deficit rather than a surplus.

"It's a very simple equation; it's just politically clearly very difficult for the Government to admit that they're not going to make it."

"It doesn't matter which politician in Canberra promises what; if China has a bad year, the budget's going to have a bad year.

"To pretend otherwise is dumb."

There is a slim chance the Government's resignation to recording another deficit will mean Australia loses its top credit rating with the world's major rating agencies.

Saul Eslake, chief economist with Bank of America Merrill Lynch, says that may not be a bad thing in that it would be helpful in bringing down the dollar.

"It may be that the Government's abandonment of its commitment to a surplus raises eyebrows in the financial markets and reduces the capital inflows into Australia that have kept the dollar at elevated levels," he said.

"If that were to happen, I think the Reserve Bank would be much mess inclined to lower interest rates further than they probably are at the moment."

You have no doubt been hearing a lot about the Paris Agreement and know that it pertains to climate change, but are too embarrassed at this stage to ask for an overall explanation of what it's all about.